Magnetic Shapes

. This X-ray image shows loop-like emission, with contorted, twisted geometry, as well as bright, compact, active-region coronal loops and relatively faint and long magnetic loops. It was taken on 11 June 1992 with the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) aboard the Yohkoh mission of the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). (Courtesy of NASA, ISAS, the Lockheed-Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the University of Tokyo.)